Traditionally mobile network base transceiver stations (BTS) have exchanged data with the core mobile network via a dedicated, high capacity connection to an associated base station controller (BSC), e.g., a dedicated T-1/E-1 line. In some cases, it may be desirable to use an IP or other packet data network to enable a BTS to exchange data with a BSC. However, to meet quality of service obligations to carriers and/or provide a satisfactory call experience to users, care must be taken to ensure call data is communicated in an efficient manner that ensures safe and timely receipt at the destination.
Protocols such as the real-time transport protocol (RTP) have been provided to enable voice and similar data to be communicated reliably over an IP or other packet data network, however such protocols have associated with them certain overhead that consumes time and computing resources, e.g., to form headers, assign and track sequence numbers, etc. In certain mobile telecommunication networks, the size of each packet (or frame) of voice data is relatively small, and packets are required to be sent relatively frequently (e.g., every 20 msec), making the overhead associated with protocols such as RTP more burdensome in relation to the amount of data being transmitted. In addition, RTP or other protocol header information must be communicated over the network, consuming network bandwidth and potentially introducing greater latency in network communications. Therefore, there is a need for a way to maximize the voice or other call data transferred in relation to the overhead, network bandwidth use, and other resource consumption associated with the transport protocol used to transmit it.